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Monday, September 29, 2008

I was angry and annoyed, but I liked it. Only because Ted is the beating heart, the moral center, of this deranged tale. In a world full of monsters, Ted's only transgression was a brief lapse in judgment, an act of sin, out of love. The abrupt end of his story thread is absolutely fitting, establishing the moral amidst the farce. Chesterton (in his essay Fairy Tales) best described the Coens' dedication to a core fairy tale idea: "the idea that all happiness hangs on one thin veto."

Monday, September 1, 2008

When one is making a path through a jungle it is a good idea to beat the bushes ahead with a stick and uncover the dangers that lie ahead. Sometime the stick breaks in your hands. Sometimes it doesn’t break, and the force of its resistance numbs your arm. This is the kind of thing I have been doing these last few years.I didn’t want to stay put. But my compass was out of order. I couldn’t find my direction. I am very proud of this.

It means that I haven’t lost contact with the actual world, with this strange, unstable world of the mid-twentieth century.

Very few people, today, can truthfully say they know where they are going. Be they individuals, groups, or nations, chance alone is guiding them. Those that seem to advance toward a goal are guided by instinct, not by reason.